Monthly Archives: January 2012

David Wen had a fantastic weekend of chess, going undefeated against a brutal lineup. After drawing against Matt Dalthorp in the first round, he went on to beat beat Alexandra Botez, Max Sun, Calvin Parnon, and Steven Witt to finish clear first with 4.5/5, a full point and a half against second place finisher Steven Witt.

Due to flooding in Benton County, the Red Cross took over the planned site for the Oregon Jr Closed tournament, forcing organizers to find a new site at the last minute. Zion Lutheran School in Corvallis is providing quiet, comfortable rooms for both playing and skittles.

Rounds 2 and 3 were lively affairs, with six hard-fought decisive games.

Bd 2: Matt Dalthorp vs. David Wen. 1/2-1/2. A wild Karo-Kann with both players castling queenside and launching massive attacks. David’s pawns were bearing down on Matt’s king, while Matt desperately looked for enough kingside play to distract David from his attack. Matt ended up winning a piece just as David broke through. Both players missed wins at least once apiece, and the game ended in a dead drawn rook endgame. They shook hands on move 77 after a tense, grueling battle.

Bd 3: Max Sun vs. Calvin Parnon. Max played the Evans Gambit, a sharp opening, rich with tactical opportunities for both sides. Calvin played the opening well. First, he solidified his position to take the steam out of Max’s tactical possibilities. Then he applied pressure in the center until Max cracked. Calvin picked up a piece in a tactical flourish and came out the other side with an overwhelming attack–checkmate a few moves later.

Saturday’s games were originally scheduled to be played at Crescent Valley High School, but the Red Cross has taken over the building to use as a shelter for evacuees from the floods. The new site will be Zion Lutheran School, near the corner of 29th and Harrison.

Each year Oregon’s official USCF State affiliate club, the Oregon Chess Federation (not to be confused with the Oregon Scholastic Chess Federation), hosts an Oregon Jr. Closed Championship, which is a round robin invitational featuring the top six available juniors* in the state. The winner is declared the Jr Champion and gets his/her name engraved on a perpetual trophy that is passed down from winner to winner each year. In addition, if the winner is rated above 1900 on the January USCF ratings list and the event was completed before December 1, the winner earns an invitation to the Oregon Championship. This year OCF was unable to organize the event and deferred to OSCF’s Andrei Botez and Dan Dalthorp to host the event in January.

This year’s Oregon Jr Championship will be held on January 20-22 in Corvallis. It will be a six-player round robin with time control G/90 + 30 second increment, featuring a very strong field:

Alexandra Botez (2005), 11th grade, Clackamas
Alexandra moved to Oregon in 2009 and immediately made an impact on the scholastic chess scene, winning the top section at All-Stars and becoming Oregon’s top-rated female player, an honor she has held ever since. The following year, she won All-Stars again and tied for first in the high school elite section at the 2010 OSCF state championships in Seaside. But her chess successes extend well beyond Oregon. In 2011, she won the title for USA All Girls National Champion, and won a scholarship worth over $100,000 to UTD by winning the 2011 Susan Polgar National Open Girls Championship.

Calvin Parnon (1895), 10th grade, Corvallis
Calvin began his chess tournament career with a first place finish in the novice section at PE+ in Corvallis in December 2007. Almost overnight he entered the ranks of the top Oregon scholastic players. In addition to his obvious talent in “regular” chess, he has dominated a unique chess/running event. The tournament begins with a one mile run by all players and is followed by a chess tournament. In each chess game, a player gets the amount of time on his/her clock that his/her opponent took to run the mile. If your opponent ran a mile in five minutes, too bad! You have only five minutes to play your chess game. Calvin won first place in this event in 2009, 2010, and 2011. Calvin is home-schooled and especially enjoys studying chess history and theory. He also plays football and basketball and is interested in guitar-based rock and blues.

Maxwell Sun(1863), 6th grade, Corvallis
Max always seems to be at or near the top of the standings in every tournament he enters. For example, after winning the OSCF State Championship for grades K-1 in 2007, he went on to win four more State Championship titles in the next four years (K-1 in 2007, Primary School in 2008, Elementary School in 2009, 2010, and 2011). He’s been playing his best chess recently, finishing second only to Nick Raptis (2288) and tied with the state’s #1 rated player, Steven Breckenridge (2334) at both the Gresham Open on Jan. 7-8 and the Corvallis MLK tournament on Jan 16. He’s just a sixth grader this year and the only player in the group who is not in high school, but Max has proven that he belongs among the very best scholastic players in the state.

Steven Witt(1856), 11th grade, Hillsboro
Steven played his first rated tournament only a few years ago, but already he is firmly established among the elite scholastic players in the state. He earned an initial provisional rating of 830 in March 2008, but by March 2009 his rating surpassed 1600 — a pickup of nearly 800 points, an astounding achievement. By contrast, each year at the OSCF state championship, we honor all the players who improved their rating by 200 points during the previous year, and the list tends to be very short. Steven’s initial impact was even great than that of America’s strongest current player and at one point was the youngest American ever to earn the title of international Grand Master, Hikaru Nakamura–Hikaru only picked up 600 points in his first year. Like Max, Steven has been playing very strong chess lately.

David Wen (1786), 9th grade, Corvallis
David moved to Corvallis from Ohio in summer 2010. Immediately he made his presence known by becoming Oregon’s top-rated middle schooler and performing very well at tournament after tournament. He was the OSCF Middle School Co-Champion in 2011 and represented Oregon in the 1st Annual Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions in Orlando, Florida.

Matt Dalthorp (1776), 10th grade, Corvallis
Matt has been steadily and consistently improving since he began tournament play in December 2006. He plays very creative, energetic chess and is fully capable of beating a Master in a wild attacking game (e.g., at the Gresham Open this year), or accumulating small advantages and grinding out a win in an endgame. Recently, he has been enjoying playing blindfold simuls against three players at the same time. Matt enjoys playing chess and has a passion for performing music (piano and violin) and composing music.

Snow fell over much of the state on Sunday night and Monday morning. The roads in Corvallis were completely iced over an hour before check-in for the 2012 Corvallis MLK chess tournament. Even so, players from as far as Seattle, Medford, Cottage Grove, Salem, all parts of Portland, Blodgett, Pleasant Hill, Eugene, etc. converged on Corvallis in record numbers for great chess.

Play was divided into eight sections. The top section was open to all (including adults) and players competed for sizable cash prizes ($150-90-60 for 1st-3rd and $50 for top U1700). The other seven sections were for K-12 players only and were defined by rating and age. Players competed for performance trophies (top four in each section), as well as trophies for Best Notation, Good Sportsmanship, and Best Handshake.

The Power Section was open to all, including adults. The top two active players in the state, Steve Breckenridge (2335) and Nick Raptis (2278) were joined by FIDE Master Corey Russell (2200), chess Expert Rob Fisette (2001), six players rated between 1800 and 2000, and fifteen others to play five rounds at G/45. Nick Raptis ended up winning with an undefeated 4.5/5.

The big scholastic stories of the day were the performances of Max Sun (1824, 6th grade, Corvallis) and Yogi Saputra (1424, 9th grade, Albany). Aside from his heartbreaking loss against Steve Breckenridge in the second round, Max won every single game he played to tie for second with Oregon’s highest-rated player and finish ahead of a FIDE Master Russell and an chess Expert Fisette.

A half point behind Max at 3.5/5 was Yogi Saputra. Yogi hadn’t played in a tournament in nearly a year and a half before playing at the Albany Open in December. In Albany he won clear first in the U1800 section, scoring 4.5/5. He picked up over 200 ratings points in the process and demonstrated that U1800 sections may be starting to be too easy for him. At Corvallis MLK he was eligible to play in the Mighty Rook Section (U1500) but chose to play up and test his mettle in the Power Section. He ended up tying with FIDE Master Russell, taking home the U1700 prize, and picking up another 200 ratings points to weigh in at 1620 with his first established USCF rating.

The Mighty Rook Section (1000-1499) was split into two smaller sections, primarily by age. In the Mighty Rook A section, Henry Lancaster (10th grade, Cottage Grove) won with a convincing 4/4. Henry played his first USCF-rated tournament last spring and got an initial provisional rating of 684. In three tournaments since November, he has boosted that number by over 500 points to 1197 by playing remarkably solid chess. Keep an eye on future All-Stars lists and the tops of tournament cross tables, and you’ll be sure to see this young man’s name again and again.

In the Mighty Rook B section, John Ornes (6th grade, Corvallis) won with an undefeated 3.5/4. John plays creative, interesting chess and has a great feel for the position. John picked up 300 points at the Elementary school nationals last spring, and it seems like he is on the verge of another breakthrough with great wins against much higher-rated players in Albany in December and in Eugene last weekend, and a solid performance in Corvallis on Monday.

The Good Knight Section (700-999) was split into two smaller sections (mostly by rating). Of the 19 players in the Good Knight A section, the youngest of them all–third grader Kevin Dai (Corvallis)–won with a perfect 5/5. Good Knight B section was also won by a third-grader, Jack Woo McClain (Eugene), with a perfect 5/5.

The High-Energy Section (U700) was split into three smaller sections (primarily by age). The twenty Players in the High-Energy A section ranged in age from 4th through 10th grade. There was a four-way tie for first between Mark Dalthorp (7th grade, Corvallis), Hunter Dietz (5th grade, Tigard), Christopher Cebra (5th grade, Corvallis), and Trevor Wehner (5th grade, Corvallis). They played a blitz mini-tournament to break the tie and finished in the order listed above.

The High-Energy B and C sections were played in the kindergarten room in the school. The small chairs may have been a little uncomfortable for the handful of fourth graders in the section, but they were good sports and played great chess with good cheer. Third-grader Andreu Martin (Corvallis) swept the High-Energy B section with perfect 5/5 score. Third-grader Fontaine McCullough (Corvallis) swept the High-Energy C section, playing in his very first tournament. [Interesting that four of the eight sections were won by third graders with perfect scores…]

An army of energetic and efficient volunteers made the day flow incredibly smoothly and pleasantly.

Concessions: Barb Berg and Donna Stream served hot dogs, pizza, chips, candy, fruit, soft drinks, coffee, donuts, etc. Based on turnout in prior years, they were planning for 100 players. When over 130 showed up, they handled the rush with grace and class.

Tournament Directors: Experienced, rock-solid TDs Jeff Risher (High-Energy B and C), Bing Sun (Good Knights), Max Booth (Mighty Rooks), and Lisa Still (Power) were joined by rising superstar TD Steve Cousineau (High-Energy A) to guide the players to their playing rooms and help get the first round started as close to on time as possible (a difficult task with the unavoidable snow delay) and with minimal disruption. Cassie Khavari helped Jeff in the High-Energy B/C room, while Erin Kooyman kept a close eye on the proceedings, knowing she’d be in charge of the room for the second half of the day. She was joined by Kristen Bishop in the afternoon, and the two made a great team, helping the youngest novices navigate the tournament. In the High-Energy A section, Steve Cousineau was scheduled to be TD for the first half of the day, but he was having so much fun, he decided to continue on until the end. Helping him was Corine Wehner, who was also enjoying the work and stayed past her originally scheduled time. Their replacements were to be two solid floor judges Nick Beleiciks and Shanthakumar Tyavanagimatt, who were able to help out as well. David Dai has been a reliable tournament volunteer for a year or so, and after working with Bing Sun for a couple rounds, he was ready to take sole charge of the large Good Knights room for the rest of the day–43 players! It was not easy, but he proved very capable and kept things running smoothly all afternoon. Steve Kleier relieved Max Booth in the Mighty Rooks room after the second round, and Dave Neiman relieved Steve late in the afternoon. Lisa Still and Bob Allyn were a dynamic duo in the Power Section, both of them playing and sharing floor judge duties. It was wonderful that these two highly dedicated chess parents were able to actually play in a tournament for once while their kids played in other rooms. Zane Kesey took over as floor judge in the last round. Bing Sun was the head go-to guy for blitz playoffs, which were numerous and complicated. He was joined by Jeff Risher, David Dai, Steve Cousineau, and I’m not sure who else. Excellent job! And Mighty Thanks! (And please forgive me if I’ve forgotten anyone.)

Check-in: Amy Roy, Jennifer Thibert, Agatha Roberts, and Leanne Schuetze. You were a great team. Thank-you!

Trophy Prep: Diana Strand unpacked the trophies, carefully checked the inventory, added stickers to medals and 2nd place trophies, added engraving plates various “stray” trophies that needed to be inserted precisely into the trophy lineup, and arranged everything in a clear, logical, and attractive order–not a simple task with 82 trophies and 30 medals. Thanks, Diana!

Coaches: A large tournament like this cannot be run without the huge contributions from chess coaches. At the top of the list are Erin Kooyman (bringing 15 kids from Ashbrook AND serving as floor judge), Jeff Risher (bringing 12 kids all the way from Tigard AND serving as a floor judge), and Bing Sun (bringing 12 kids AND serving as floor judge and blitz coordinator). Zane Kesey (Pleasant Hill) and Michael Myers (Eugene) each brought a car load of high school players–not an easy task, but greatly appreciated. Forest Tomlinson brought around a half dozen players from Pleasant Hill. And, as always, Forest’s kids were disproportionately represented among the winners of Good Sportsmanship awards. Thank-you!

Parents: Huge thanks to parents. Sometimes chess tournaments seem to go on forever, but it is a wonderful activity for the kids, and your support is absolutely critical.

Setup: Alex Mueller-Warrant and Matt Dalthorp helped set up tables and playing rooms on Sunday night. Some of those tables are obnoxiously heavy and needed to be carried all the way from the back of the gym, into the school, and all the way down to the end of the hall. (Was it 17 tables that had to be moved great distances?) Thank-you! A number of people helped set up tables and chairs in the skittles room and others (Max Booth et al.) put pieces on chess boards in the playing rooms and board numbers next to the boards (Lisa Still, Steve Cousineau, et al.). Thank-you!

Clean-up: One minute, I looked at the tables and chairs scattered all over the skittles room near the end of tournament. I blinked, and the tables and chairs were all put away. Someone did an awful lot of work in a hurry. Dave Neiman and others helped put away chess pieces and boards. After the tournament was over, Matt Dalthorp stayed for several hours helping move tables and clean up in exchange for a late-night trip to Qdoba (fortunately, he got to sleep in because school was on two-hour delay due to weather). Muchas Gracias!

Full results for the Power Section and the Mighty Rook Sections can be found at USCF. Results for all sections are posted at NWSRS.

Coquille is producing great scholastic chess players in great numbers. It is hard to keep up with their progress, but be prepared to see a number of them near the tops of cross tables at the state championship in Seaside in April.

by Nancy Keller
Tuesday, January 10th, sixty three middle school students and home school students skipped some school with full permission in order to play in the Coquille Valley Middle In School Chess Tournament. Coach Nancy Keller used this tournament to find hidden talents, determine State teams and find the school champions.

Instead of trophies, the incentive was large candy to be given to the top finishers in each grade. As each round was called, the kids excitedly took their places to play chess. After a four round battle, the champions were determined. Coquille Valley Middle School champion is Kaden Johnson and the Coquille Valley Elementary champion is Vincent Thrash. Homeschool students Aaron Grabinsky and his brother Joshua Grabinsky dominated the event as well, each winning all their games.

The Portland Area League met on Wednesday, January 11th for the second round play in the second half of the season. The A Division leading Falcons of LaSalle College Prep faced off against the Trojans of Wilson High School. Wilson took the top board, but LaSalle got the rest of them. The Wolves of Sylvan Middle School, hoping to keep pace with LaSalle, tangled with the Wildcats of Westview High School but just came up short. Sylvan won on board 5 and drew on boards one and three, but lost both of the even numbered boards. The Cavaliers of Clackamas once again were bailed out by their three bottom boards and slipped by the Crusaders of Jesuit by a score of 3 to 2. The Lakers of Lake Oswego brushed aside the kids from Access Academy, yielding only a draw on board four. After two rounds LaSalle is the only team with a prefect match record. Next week they will face a tough test from Westview.

Divison B leader Clevland High School warriors were ready to take on Wilsonville, however, they were a no show and Warriors of Cleveland were the beneficiary of a forfeit. The Lincoln Cardinals only showed up with three players but that was enough as they sweep the top three boards to down Clackamas #2. LaSalle #2 won on boards one, two, and five to outlast Lake Oswego #2. The Bowmen of Sherwood took aim and shoot down Access Academy #2 on every board but the second. After two rounds of play Cleveland High School has not lost a game and is looking forward to taking on Clackamas #2 next week.

Divsion C leader Sherwood #2 was idle this week, but their players came and participated in the “extra games” section. Rumor has it that they did check out the games of Jesuit #2, their next opponent. Jesuit #2 lost a close match to Cleveland #2 by a score of 2 to 3. The two all middle school teams met with Sylvan #2 besting Access Academy #2 by a score of 5 to 0. Wilson #2 ruined LaSalle’s big day by downing their #2 team by a score of 3 1/2 to 1/12. Division C leader after two rounds is Sylvan #2 who faces off against LaSalle #3 next week.

The league awards the top individual performance for each board at the end of the season. Current leaders:

Board #1: Clemen Deng of Sylvan with 7.5; Bryce Eng of Jesuit with 7, and Dillon Murray playing for Wilson with 6.5.
Board #2: Charlie Summers of LaSalle with 7, Ben Halverson of Cleveland with 6.5, Leo Deng of Sylvan and Nathan Jewell playing for Wilson both with 6.
Board #3: Varun Sah of Jesuit with 7, Kevin Rhine of Clackamas with 6.5, and Cameron Fish of Cleveland with 6.
Board #4: Lamson Vu of Westview with a prefect 8 wins, Kian Patel of Access Academy with 6.5, Tucker Price of LaSalle with 6.
Board #5: Bryan Lucero of Clackamas with 6, Curtis Bush of Sherwood with 5.5, and Johannes Frieschuetz of Sylvan with 4.

League rules require that every teams line-up is such that their best player plays board #1, second best on board #2, and so. However, it is often difficult to determine who is the best player on a team so every team is required to change their line-ups, if necessary. Some of the teams allow players on a lower board to challenge a player on a higher board, and, if the challenge is successful, board positions are changed. Other teams rank their players by their ratings All teams are encouraged to have reserve players that can fill in if someone is absent. These requirements results in many of the players having games on various boards. With eight rounds already played a few individuals have played every one of the five boards. With five rounds left if is likely that a few more players may also have played every board. Many years ago the League established rules that gives different weights for each board. A win on Board #1 is worth a full point, on Board #2 only 0.8, on Board #3 you get 0.64, board #4 its 0.512, and board #5 is worth 0.4096. So someone on board #5 with only 4 wins (2 on board 1 and 2 on board 5 = 2.8192 Weighted Point Value) would be ahead of someone with 6 wins (2 on board #4 and 2 on board #5 = 2.6624). Players are only eligible for the board they played the most often.

League matches begin at 4 PM on each Wednesday until February 15th. We have an open section that can be entered by anyone in grades 6 to 12 and the cost is free. You must enter by 4 PM with the games starting shortly after that. All of the games are played using USCF rules with a time control of game in an hour with a 5 second delay. It is also still possible to join with an existing team by contacting Ed Addis at chessalot@aol.com.

For most scholastic players in the Portland area the Winter Classic is the starting line for the Road To Seaside. 135 players came from all over to play in this annual event. Trophies were given out to the top two teams in each section and the top four individuals in each section. Medals were given to 5th, 6th and sportsmanship in each section. Daniel Fan was the player that received the most praise rising up to play in the Open 1200+ section to even out the Kings at 10 players. The top cash prize in the Kings Open went to Clemen Deng with a perfect score, edging out Dimitri Murphy and younger brother Leo who place 3rd. This added up to a total of 83 awards for this OSCF State Championship Qualifier!
With the addition of the team trophies the other new attraction to this year’s tournament was a competitive and fun All Girls Section-The Queens.
Top finishers:Queens
1.Nancy Wu-Forest Park
2.Allison Mattingly-Cooper Mtn.
3.Christi Severin-Happy Valley
4.Gloria Rosas-MetzgerTEAM
1. Metzger
2. Forest Park

The new All-Stars list is published. Rankings are based on the highest established ratings attained during the September through December trimester. To be eligible for the list, players must have played at least one NWSRS or USCF rated game during the trimester and be an Oregon-based K-12 student in good standing.

The Portland Area League got right back to business after the Christmas Holiday School break, with the first round of the second half Round Robin on Wednesday, January 4th, 2012. Teams have been split into three different divisions largely based on their finish in the first half six round Swiss tournament. Exceptions to a divison placement included: any school that had three teams would have one team in each of the divisions, a school’s first team would be placed in a higher division than their second team, and no school would have more than one team in a given division. The coaches/advisors, known for their innovations, decided to named the three divisions A, B, and C.

In the A Division, Clackamas, with their unblemished match record, took on the always tough Lake Oswego. In the 5th round of the Swiss, the Cavaliers won the top two boards and split the remaining three for a 3 1/2 to 1 1/2 victory. This time around the Lakers of Lake Oswego turned the tables and won on the top two boards. Clackamas took the bottom two with the third board deciding the outcome of the match. Of course it was the last game to finish with both players in time trouble and only the kings and one pawn remaining. A draw was agreed to — so the match ended the same. The Wildcats of Westview only loss in the first half of the season was to the Jesuit Crusaders by a score of 3 to 2 when the lost the top three boards. Once again it was a very hard fought match this time ending in a draw. The Trojans of Wilson were whipped by the youngsters of Sylvan Middle School by a score of 4 to 1 winning only on board 3. LaSalle College Prep was loaded for bear after the Christmas holiday taking every game from Access Academy. With this sweep LaSalle lays claim to an early lead in the top division. The Falcons of LaSalle meet the Trojans of Wilson next week with high hopes of continuing to sweep away the competition.

In Division B LaSalle #2 had to face the Bowmen of Sherwood for the second time and must have felt very confident as they had just won from them in the last round of the Swiss by a score of 3 1/2 to 1 1/2. However, this time the Bowmen picked up a half point on board 1 and 5 from the previous encounter, leaving this match as a Draw. The Cleveland Warriors put a hurt on Lake Oswego #2, winning on every board. The Lincoln Cardinals won of the first three boards to down the Wilsonville Wildcats by a score of 3 to 2. Clackamas #2 was short one player but managed to take the match from Access Academy #2 by a score of 3 to 2. Cleveland will face Wilsonville next week in an attempt to stay on top of this division.

In Division C Sherwood #2 blew away Wilson #2 by a score of 5 to 0 winning on the first two boards and taking the other three by forfeit. Cleveland #2 was idle this week as the Loggers of Scio HS decided to withdraw from the League due to scheduling and transportation issues (this team had a 140 mile round trip to play in the League). LaSalle #3 beat Access Academy #3 by a score of 3 1/2 to 1 1/2. The middle school wiz kids form Sylvan #2 faced the high school students of Jusuit #2 and took them down by the score of 3 1/2 to 1 1/2. Division leading Sherwood #2 will see their current lead in this division slip away as they will be idle next week. Unfortunately with an odd number of teams — someone will be without a match.

The League awards individual performance. Current leaders by board are:

Board 1 – Clemen Deng of Sylvan with a prefect 7 wins, Bryce Eng of Jesuit with 6 wins, and Dillion Murray playing for Wilson with 5.5 game points.
Board 2 – Charlie Summers of LaSalle College Prep, Leo Deng of Sylvan, and Nathan Jewell of Robert Gray Middle School (Robert Gray is the feeder school for Wilson HIgh School) all with 6 game points.
Board 3 – Varun Sah of Jesuit with a prefect 7 wins, Cameron Fish of Cleveland with 5, and Home Schooled Peter Kleier playing for Cleveland with 5 wins.
Board 4 – Lamson Vu of Westview with a prefect 7 wins, Kian Patel of Access Academy with 6, and Price Tucker of LaSalle with 5.
Board 5 – Curtis Bush of Sherwood with 5.5 game points, Will Holloran of LaSalle and Bryan Lucero of Clackamas with 5 game points.

League matches begin at 4 PM on each Wednesday until February 15th. We have an open section that can be entered by anyone in grades 6 to 12 and the cost is free. You must enter by 4 PM with the games starting shortly after that. All of the games are played using USCF rules with a time control of game in an hour with a 5 second delay. It is also still possible to join with an existing team by contacting Ed Addis at chessalot@aol.com.